50 Billion

The United States taxpayers spent about 50 billion dollars bailing out General Motors last year. Now the people own about 61 percent of the company, which seems like about the worst deal possible.

Banks that were bailed out last year have actually been paying back some of the money used to bail out their terrible investments and strange financial investment strategies.

Poor management in the giant businesses are the obvious targets for taxpayer anger. In fact, they are completely responsible for running banks and car makers into the ground. What is hard to understand is why we continue to bail out companies that are probably not really in a long range forecast. The world is changing and the problem with GM is that it is not trying to do anything for the future, it still remains focused on a time when gas was cheap and people drove everywhere.

The money wasted on GM and many of the banks too big to fail would have been better spent looking to the future and how to build the type of economy that will be profitable in that near future. Things we all know, the gas engine will become too expensive to run, so for starters, why not spend a billion or 2 on companies that are developing a future mode of transportation that is not based on a fuel source that is almost played out.

One thing I always find frustrating is when a city faces an expensive fix for a road or bridge, and here I am thinking of the "big dig" in Boston, the bridge in Minneapolis that fell into a river and the Viaduct in Seattle that is about to fall apart, and how these cities always choose to just build or rebuild the exact same car-centric travel option. Great cities that have been great for a long time and will probably be great for a long time have systems that transport thousands of people via train or metro. This serves a city in a variety of ways, not the least of which is keeping cars out of the core of the city. What are these city "leaders" thinking when they spend billions on rebuilding a failing road system?

One of the sad aspects of American thinking is always reacting in the face of tragedy or danger, and never thinking proactively before they face terrible choices. Example? 9-11 security. Only after planes started crashing into buildings did airports start getting serious about making sure passengers did not carry materials or weapons onto planes. Guess what? The next terror attack will be doubtfully involve planes. We reacted in an absurd manner to justify security that will no longer keep us any safer.

That same backward thinking is true in bailing out banks and car companies. First, the banks wounds were self inflicted. Idiocy and greed ruled the day and instead of letting these idiots suffer, the Bush administration decided that the too big to fail tag would justify hundreds of billions in short sighted bail outs. When it comes to GM there really is no justification for bailing out this ailing car company. The few jobs that were saved will be gone because the management and design teams in place will not be gone soon enough. The idiots are the same as the bankers, as long as they get bailed out they will not be forced to learn from the mistakes.

By the way, at the height of its profitability, General Motors was valued at 57 billion dollars. Which means, obviously, that when it was just about to go out of business, the American taxpayers paid top dollar and more for a company that can probably never turn itself around and become an industry leader. Think to yourself for a minute, when was the last time you considered a GM vehicle as a possible purchase? For me, I have never thought GM made a good car that I would be proud to own.